The invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning and opening flocks of fiber material, such as natural and/or synthetic fibers. The fiber material is first passed through an intake roller or a pair of intake rollers cooperating with a trough. Subsequently, the fiber material is passed through an opener which includes a cleaner to be finally discharged to a processing machine.
With regard to the cleaner used for the preparation of the fiber material, one has to distinguish between the so-called first, coarse cleaners, and the later, fine cleaners in the fiber preparation line. The coarse cleaners are used to clean the raw fiber material, such as raw cotton, before the bales are formed in compliance with the sales requirements. The fine cleaners are used during the preparatory procedure, for processing the fiber material in advance of, or if necessary, also subsequent to the card, after the raw material of the bales has been opened. As for the fine cleaners, use is made of cleaning and opening means in which the intake rollers directly cooperate with the opening roller. At the opening roller, a cleaning means in the form of a knife grid or the like is provided. Opposite the cleaning means is disposed a suction means for the cleaned fiber material. The cleaning intensity obtainable with such devices is still unsatisfactory. Above all, waste particles are more or less disintegrated by the cleaning procedure. A separation of the disintegrated particles during further processing is either hardly possible or not possible at all.
In case of the coarse cleaners for the raw fiber material, it has been known to provide between the intake means and the opening roller with a cleaner, an intermediate roller cooperating with a cleaner, e.g. a knife grid. In this arrangement, the diameters of intermediate roller and opening rollers are approximately equal and the difference in speed between the two rollers is relatively. Difficulties result concerning the delivery of the fiber material to the opening roller. In order to keep the return side of the clothing of the intermediate roller as clean as possible from fibers, etc., there is provided, on the one hand, a guide plate to guide the fiber flow from one roller to the other. On the other hand, subsequent to the guide plate, there is still a suction means to remove the remaining fibers from the roller clothing. The problem of transferring the fibers from the intermediate roller to the opening roller is not solved satisfactorily this way.
It is the object of the invention to provide a cleaning and opening apparatus for the fine opening of fiber material accompanied by a high cleaning intensity and a high throughput without the need of tolerating a fiber deterioration.